Step 3 of the “MP3 Manufacturing” Workflow: Adding to iTunesThis is the final step in the Workflow of MP3 “manufacturing” process. So now you have created all MP3 files, set them up in properly formatted MP3 tags and embedded the album art. You just need to add them to iTunes software by going to FILE>ADD FILE TO LIBRARY and you are done. When you next plug in your iPod, it will be automatically sych over to your iPod.So only 1 comment here:When you first set up your iTunes, there is one setting I personally consider very important. I never understand why iTunes don’t set it as a default setting but that’s another story.
In EDIT>PREFERENCES>ADVANCED, you should be setting the option: “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” to be CHECKED (that means to enable this setting) and then set your music folder location to a specific place in your hard disk where you want all your iTunes songs stored (in my case, that’s E:\Music\iTunes). You should also check the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized”.
The “Copy files to iTunes Music folder” is important as it actually copy the MP3 files to the specified folder whenever you try to add a MP3 file. If you don’t do that, iTunes just point itself to the current location of your MP3 file. If you delete the MP3 file, it will not be able to find the file and will have a silly exclaimation mark next to the song when you next load iTunes.
Why is it important ? Because usually our MP3 files are placed in a temporary directory (after ripping and touch up and embedding the album art) and hence it is better to COPY them over to the folder instead of just POINTING iTunes to the temporary folder. This allows you to delete the file if you don’t want it (since a copy is already in the Music Folder).
More likely, the scenario is that you have ripped a whole CD but do not want every single song in that CD in your iTunes (and hence iPod). Instead, you just want a few desired tracks. Then you can add the desired tracks to iTunes and hence copy the files to your Music folder while keeping the original ripped tracks of the album in (probably) a separate music library folder.
That’s my preferred method and setting anyway.
What’s yours ? Drop me some comments !
In EDIT>PREFERENCES>ADVANCED, you should be setting the option: “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” to be CHECKED (that means to enable this setting) and then set your music folder location to a specific place in your hard disk where you want all your iTunes songs stored (in my case, that’s E:\Music\iTunes). You should also check the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized”.
The “Copy files to iTunes Music folder” is important as it actually copy the MP3 files to the specified folder whenever you try to add a MP3 file. If you don’t do that, iTunes just point itself to the current location of your MP3 file. If you delete the MP3 file, it will not be able to find the file and will have a silly exclaimation mark next to the song when you next load iTunes.
Why is it important ? Because usually our MP3 files are placed in a temporary directory (after ripping and touch up and embedding the album art) and hence it is better to COPY them over to the folder instead of just POINTING iTunes to the temporary folder. This allows you to delete the file if you don’t want it (since a copy is already in the Music Folder).
More likely, the scenario is that you have ripped a whole CD but do not want every single song in that CD in your iTunes (and hence iPod). Instead, you just want a few desired tracks. Then you can add the desired tracks to iTunes and hence copy the files to your Music folder while keeping the original ripped tracks of the album in (probably) a separate music library folder.
That’s my preferred method and setting anyway.
What’s yours ? Drop me some comments !
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Not sure if my previous comment was posted … I was saying that your website is great! Help pple like me who knows nothing about naming songs and album artwork … now my library seems very much neater and thanks for the great links to the amazing softwares! Keep up the great work! Your ‘tutorial’ is far much better than all the other website that I have been! Thanks for taking time to write the blog =)
Thank you Ling for your comments. I am glad you enjoyed the tutorials.. I am so happy this web site is useful to you as that’s the WHOLE point of this web site. To share and have fun with Album Art and iTunes together ! 🙂